On Tuesday, Amazon, the largest bookseller in the world, did something it has never done: it sold a book to a customer face-to-face. Despite appearances Amazon Books, the company's first branded retail storefront, is a far cry from the bookstore as we know it.

"The store, which is situated in an outdoor mall across the street from the University of Washington campus, is unlike the grandiose retail book palaces that Barnes and Noble and Borders built in the late 1990s and with 5,000 to 6,000 titles on hand, Amazon Books stocks far fewer titles than today's bigger bookstores. Small and scaled back, Amazon Books is cleanly designed and easy-to-navigate.

The inventory is mostly books, with some magazines and a central aisle of electronics featuring the company's Kindle, Kindle Fire and FireTV devices. Book selection is deepest in bookstore strongholds: children's, young adult, bestsellers and genre fiction. The store also features a respectable graphic novel selection, and a shelf of work by local authors.

Despite the initial look and feel of a 20th century bookstore, a closer look at Amazon Books reveals that it's very much a 21st century endeavor."

Read more here.